on the subject of Pipits, mineral acquisition?

["Geoff Kay" <>]

Steve,

Unfortunately I am unable to anwer your question, but I do have another 
interesting observation made whilst on the sub-antarctics' Campbell Island 
(sorry if anyone has been awaiting my report on that trip, it is coming 
slowly but will be worth the shortening wait I hope)...
Anyway, has anyone ever heard of Pipits suplementing their diet by eating 
minerals? I viewed a single pipit foraging on a rock shelf (of limestone and 
another flint-type rock [which name escapes me]) and eating what appeared to 
be small (~5mm) fragments of the limestone. Upon closer inspection I found 
no evidence of vegetation, living matter that it may have gone after, but 
did find small fragments of the stone. I'm curious to know whether the Pipit 
was eating the limestone to supplement some mineral requirement (ie, for egg 
shell production)?
I was really excited when I realised what I was watching!

Cheers, Geoff Kay.



  .--_/\        Geoff Kay
/       \        'Waminda' c/o Hall
\_.--.._/        PO ACT 2618
       v





> From: "Steve Holliday" <>
> To: <>
> Subject: [canberrabirds] pipit mimicry
> Date: Thu, 2 Feb 2006 16:07:49 +1100
>
> Hi all
>
> At Gooroo recently I was intrigued to hear and then watch a pipit mimicking 
> the pippy-wheat call of Stubble Quail. A quick search through my books 
> reveals no mention of Aus pipits as vocal mimics, which rather surprises 
> me.
> Does anyone have any information on this, as far as I can tell there hasn't 
> been any review of vocal mimicry in Aus birds published recently (please 
> set me straight if I am wrong about that), and the pipit hasn't been 
> covered in HANZAB yet. I believe Alec Chisholm published a fair bit on 
> vocal mimicry in Aus birds way back.
> cheers
>
> Steve

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